Those who died in order to defend life itself, cannot be considered dead. (Alí Primera)

On 27th April, 2013, it will be the third anniversary of the cowardly murders of Bety Cariño (the "Red Pitaya") and Jyri Jakkola from Finland.

<--break->

After Colombia, Mexico is the most dangerous place for human rights activists in Latin America, more so if they are women, affirmed Alejandra Anchieta, director of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project.

Richard Roman and Edur Velasco Arregui

Éramos silencio, éramos dolor, éramos opresión.
Quisieron arrebatárnoslo todo y lo único que perdimos fue el miedo.
Ya no seremos más una voz silenciada. Venimos aquí con nuestros cuerpos que gritan: ¡¡¡Ya basta!!!

Silence, Pain, Oppression suffused our being.
They wanted to take everything from us and the only thing we lost was fear.
No longer will we be silenced. We come here with our bodies that scream: ¡¡¡Ya basta!!!

- From statement of #YoSoy132 movement at www.jornada.unam.mx.

The ‘defeat' of the center-left in the Presidential election of 2012 is a victory for Mexican Big Business and the U.S. in advancing the neoliberal agenda of privatization, cutbacks and attacks on the working-class. The fact that the old ruling party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party - PRI), ‘won' the presidency in 2012 - rather than the conservative Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party - PAN) as in 2000 and 2006 - involves an important shift in influence within the neoliberal bloc. It is very consequential in terms of methods of rule and patronage opportunities but it doesn't affect the program and domination of Mexican Big Capital and its U.S. and Spanish allies, which have dominated Mexico more or less comfortably with both the PRI and the PAN. The neoliberal agenda has been advanced for the last thirty years by a tacit alliance between Big Business, the PRI and the PAN with varying degrees of opposition and acquiescence by different sectors of the center-left.

This article will examine the responses of Mexico's Lefts to the new electoral fraud. Part 1 will deal with the dynamic and unexpected rise of a militant, national student movement in the last two months of the election campaign and their impact on the election process, the post-election protests, and the Left. Part 2 will present some historical background to the development of the electoral left - or what could also be called the electoralization of the left - during Mexico's "democratic transition." Part 3 will discuss the dilemmas of the electoral left and of Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), its Presidential candidate, in this precarious conjuncture. And Part 4 will discuss the emerging possibilities in this crisis for both the movement left and the electoral left. Both are calling for the nullification of the elections. It is highly unlikely that the electoral review authorities, dominated by PRI and PAN appointees will consider that option. The protests are growing and the electoral tribunal has until September to verify the elections, and the new President is scheduled to take office on December 1. This is all taking place in the context of a war on drugs in which the U.S. is increasingly involved and in an economy in crisis.